By judging the game's case it looks like just another japanese rpg, never really stood out from the game shelf, but from the reviews i read and recommendations from friends, i decided to buy the game... best decision i ever made.

The thing that makes this game so amazing is the plot and character development, every single character on your squad has it's own personality, talents and weaknesses, which show up in game as 'potentials' , which could take you to victory or make things harder for you, the potentials are related to the soldier's life and experience, which makes the characters ( even those who have no real participation in the story) that much more realistic and detailed.

The game itself starts of normally but interesting, every time you get farther into the game, the plot keeps developing beautifully and more interesting. Unlike most game plots nowadays which don't make you feel much emotion, this one made me feel every emotion under the sun, happiness, regret, hope, sadness, desperation, hopelessness, shock, etc. The game constantly made me emotional, be it happiness or sadness and etc, i even laughed, not many games can do this. It even deals with real world issues as racism and obviously war and the ways it affects everyone.

The actual gameplay is really fun, though it takes some time for it to grow on you. The battles play out in turns, like a tactical rpg like final fantasy tactics, but instead of moving on a square grid, you have free movement over the character, each class has it's own unique weapon and abilities, they are nicely balanced, battles require thinking strategically, and you can use different orders you acquire throughout the game, which ranges from snipers support, healing members and everything in between. Plus the missions are diverse and you're not doing the same thing in them. The only flaws i saw against the gameplay is when the characters would miss and basically screw you over, and the duration of some missions, which makes defeats soul crushing ( i stopped playing the game three different times for weeks and even a month or two thanks to that), but hey that's an rpg for you. Also sometimes enemies would waste game changing opportunities, but most of the times they fought smartly. You can level up, gaining new orders and potentials, plus there's a lot of different weapon and armor upgrades you can buy.

Sound :The music is quite good, enhances the situation at hand perfectly, the voice acting is quite good too, the voice actors made me believe what was happening on screen, there's also a japanese voice track for the purists or if you can't stand the voice syncing, which is notably off sometimes, but never bothered me. 9.5

Controls: The controls are precise enough and never too confusing and the like. 9.5

Graphics: The graphics are absolutely gorgeous, everything looks as if it was painted in a animated water color canvas, and that's just the in game graphics, there are cutscenes, which blur the line of 3d graphics and anime, wish i could explain it better, just watch the game in action and you'll get what i mean. 10

From start to finish the game is absolutely beautiful, the plot, the twists, the feeling you get from the game's story, i cried a quite a few times, laughed and so on and so forth, while witnessing the resolution of the game, my eyes were welling up with tears as the events unfolded, no spoilers here.

If you enjoy a great story and a fun and tactical rpg, you owe it to yourself to play this game, RPG of year 08 - 09 in my opinion.

10/10

This game is beautiful, deep, and very engrossing. It's a shame that it would get lost in the shuffle among sure-fire blockbusters like Gears 2, Resistance 2, and Fallout 3 but this title ranks right up there! If you love RPGs, third-person shooters, and/or anime, you owe it to yourself to play this game and get immersed!

Valkyria Chronicles is a game for PS3 that puts you in control of Squad 7, a unit lead by Welkin Gunther. The game takes place during a fierce war over resources.

STORY: Players are introduced to Valkyria Chronicles when Welkin Gunther, an everyday teacher, returns to his home town of Gallia to visit family. Unfortunately (and fortunately) for him, he encounters Alicia Melchiott, a soldier that previously had a job at a bakery. At first, they don't seem to be very fond of each other but after the situation clears up, they become invaluable allies to each other. As Welkin eventually through a series of events becomes the captain of his squad, with Alicia at his side, and fight to defend their hometown from Imperial invaders who are raiding the town for an invaluable substance. My persona favorite character is Alicia, followed by Welkin, then Rosie. Try the game out and you'll see some of the other members as well. That aside, the game is MUCH deeper than this, but I'd rather you all try it yourselves.

GAMEPLAY: Valkyria Chronicles features solid gameplay using SEGA's BLiTZ system. The gameplay is turn-based with strong RTS elements. Assembling the squad is another aspect of the game that offers very vivid customization options that require the player to be very strategic in the way they handle themselves. For example, snipers are very valuable characters but possess weak defensive ability (they die easily). Each character possesses unique attributes such as some operating poorly because of allergies or some working better with men. It's very, very deep and it truly does feel like you're in control of a flock of soldiers with unique attributes. Definitely a shining gem among a sea of titles. You also have the ability to upgrade classes and even weapons to your liking. Fortunately, members of your squad that are leveled up also applies to the ones you keep in your camp (a scout in play that levels up also levels up the other scouts you have in your reserves) so there's no need to worry about imbalance and inexperience among yourselves. Again, these are key gameplay elements in a nutshell.

GRAPHICS: Contrary to the way things are going for most games this generation, Valkyria Chronicles trades the push-technology-for-realism
for a much more artistic and anime-esque feel, which I actually enjoy much more. The graphics are very water-color canvas-like. The environments are lush with very vibrant coloring all around. The shading featured in the game consists of hatch lines, making it feel even more animated. The cutscenes are very believable with characters that give you the real feel as well. The CG is very artistic in the sense that while it still has a water color look with hatch-line shading, one can still easily see the computer-generated graphics from it.